Promoting content in a real-time messaging platform

ABSTRACT

A real-time messaging platform and method are disclosed which can be used to promote content in the messaging platform. In one embodiment, the promotion system is disclosed which performs initial candidate selection so as to narrow down the set of candidate promotions before applying more expensive processing. The candidate selection takes advantage of the connection graph information associated with accounts in the messaging platform to identify targeted accounts. In another embodiment, the promotion system uses a prediction model to predict a user&#39;s engagement with the promotion and utilizes the prediction to assist in ranking the candidate promotions. Promotions can be assigned metrics based, for example, on a weighted combination of user engagement rates, decayed with time to reflect an intuition that recent interactions by one or more users with the promotion will have a greater impact than older interactions with the promotion.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.15/077,847, filed Mar. 22, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,163,133, which isa continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/213,367, filed Mar. 14,2014, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,319,359, which application claims the benefitof U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/800,546, filed Mar. 15, 2013, allof which are incorporated by reference in their entirety. U.S.application Ser. No. 14/213,367 is also a continuation-in-part of U.S.application Ser. No. 13/975,515, filed Aug. 26, 2013, which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/433,217, filed Mar. 28,2012, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.61/470,385, filed Mar. 31, 2011, all of which are incorporated byreference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are a wide range of known automatic techniques for classifying andselecting content for an Internet service. For example, with regard totextual content, there are known techniques from the areas of textualcategorization, textual clustering, entity extraction, etc. that can beused to classify the different textual content. There are similarclassification techniques for other types of content, such as audio andvideo. The classification result can then be used to determine what typeof promoted content to associate with content in the Internet service.Such mechanisms have been used, for example, to insert content into asearch engine page based on relevance to search keywords provided by auser.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A real-time messaging platform and method are disclosed which can beused to promote content in the messaging platform. In accordance with anembodiment of an aspect of the invention, a promotion system isdisclosed which performs initial candidate selection so as to narrowdown the set of candidate promotions before applying more expensiveprocessing. The candidate selection takes advantage of the connectiongraph information associated with accounts in the messaging platform toidentify targeted accounts. In another embodiment, the promotion systemapplies filtering to the candidate promotions, taking into account suchfactors as fatigue. In another embodiment, the promotion system uses aprediction model to predict a user's engagement with the promotion andutilizes the prediction to assist in ranking the candidate promotions,preferably using an auction model. Details of one or more embodimentsare set forth in the accompanying drawings and description below.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by way of example,and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanyingdrawings and in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a real-time messaging platform, suitable for usewith an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a promotion module,illustrating an embodiment of an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of processing performed by the promotion module inaccordance with an embodiment of an aspect of the invention.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are flowcharts of targeting processing performed by thepromotion module in accordance with embodiments of aspects of theinvention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a computing environment fordetermining the content's resonance according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a content server according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a resonance module according toone embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for transmittingresonance for content in response to a request for content's resonanceaccording to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a diagram of a computer system, suitable for implementationof an embodiment of an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for determiningresonance according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a real-time messaging platform 100, suitable foruse with an embodiment of the invention. The real-time messagingplatform 100 includes a routing module 125, a graph fanout module 130, adelivery module 135, various repositories 140, 142, 144, 146 and afrontend module 110.

The messaging platform 100, as further described below, facilitatesmessaging from a set of accounts, each account having associatedconnection graph data. A user of the platform composes a message to besent from an entry point. The entry point can be based on the operationof any computing device 105, for example, a mobile phone, a personalcomputer (laptop, desktop, or server), or a specialized appliance havingcommunication capability. The entry point can utilize any of a number ofadvantageous interfaces, including a web-based client, a Short MessagingService (SMS) interface, an instant messaging interface, an email-basedinterface, an API function-based interface, etc. In a preferredembodiment, the message includes text, such as a 140 character Tweet,although the message can include text, graphics, video, or other contentand can include links to such content. The message can be in reply toanother message, as identified for example in metadata associated withthe message. The message can be a reposting of another user's message,referred to as a “Retweet”, as identified for example in metadataassociated with the message. The message can include symbols, such as ahashtag, to denote an arbitrary keyword or topic that can aid incategorizing messages. The message can be transmitted through acommunication network to the messaging platform 100.

The routing module 125 in the messaging platform 100 receives themessage and proceeds to store the message in a message repository 140.The message is assigned an identifier. The sender of the message ispassed to a graph fanout module 130. The graph fanout module 130 isresponsible for retrieving account graph data from the connection graphrepository 142 and using the account graph data to determine whichaccounts in the messaging platform 100 should receive the message. Theaccount graph data, for example, can reflect which accounts in themessaging platform are “following” a particular account and are,therefore, subscribed to receive messages from the particular account.The account graph data can reflect more sophisticated graphrelationships between the accounts. The delivery module 135 takes thelist of accounts from the fanout module 130 and the message identifiergenerated by the routing module 125 and proceeds to insert the messageidentifier into message stream data associated with each identifiedaccount and stored in the stream repository 144. The message streamsstored in the stream repository 144 can be a “timeline” of messagesassociated with the account or can reflect any arbitrary organization ofthe messages that is advantageous for the user of the account on themessaging platform 100.

The frontend module 110 uses the storage repositories 140, 142, 144, 146to construct message streams for serving to a user of the account on themessaging platform 100. As with the entry point, a user can use any endpoint 105 to receive the messages. The end point 105 can also be anycomputing device providing any of a number of advantageous interfaces.For example, where the user uses a web-based client to access theirmessages, a web interface module in the front end 110 can be used toconstruct the message streams and serve the streams to the user. Wherethe user uses a client that accesses the messaging platform 100 throughan API, an API interface module 112 can be utilized to construct themessage streams and serve the streams to the client 105 for presentationto the user. Similarly, different forms of message delivery can behandled by different modules in the front end 110. The user can specifyparticular receipt preferences which are implemented by the modules inthe front end 110. The user can also interact with the messages in thestream in a number of ways, including without limitation, byclicking/selecting a message (for more details or information regardingthe message), clicking/selecting a link or hashtag in a message, byreposting the message, by favoriting the message, etc. The messagingplatform 100 can provide, through the front end 110, recommendations onaccounts to follow, as part of the user interface provided to the client105. Also, the messaging platform 100 can also analyze the messagestreams and identify trends. The trends can be represented as a list oftextual items, including trending hashtags.

Illustrating an embodiment of an aspect of the invention, the messagingplatform 100 includes a promotion system that comprises a promotionmodule 120, a promotion frontend module 115, and a promotion repository148.

A user or entity, referred to herein as the promoter, preferably can usea client 102 to specify a promotion. Alternatively, the promoterprovides the same information manually and the information is input intothe system using a client 102 on behalf of the promoter. As above, theclient 102 can be based on the operation of any computing device, forexample, a mobile phone, a personal computer (laptop, desktop, orserver), or a specialized appliance having communication capability. Thepromotion client 102 can utilize any of a number of advantagousinterfaces, including a web-based client, a Short Messaging Service(SMS) interface, an instant messaging interface, an email-basedinterface, an API function-based interface, etc. The promotion client102 communicates through a communication network with the promotionfrontend module 115. The promoter can utilize the promotion client 102to input a promotion into the messaging platform 100. As an example, andwithout limitation, the promoter can choose to promote one or moreaccounts in the messaging platform 100. Alternatively, the promoter canchoose to promote one or more messages (or a portion of one or moremessages) in the messaging platform 100. Alternatively, where themessaging platform provides a service that displays trends in themessaging platform 100, the promoter can choose to promote trends in themessaging platform 100. As a part of the promotion, the promoter canprovide additional information, such as a bid and budget where anauction model is utilized to select promotions as further describedherein. Information associated with a particular promotion specified bya promoter can be stored in the promotion repository 148.

The promotion module 120 selects promoted content for presentation onthe messaging platform 100. The promotion module 120 determines whatpromotion to display by accessing information in one or more of themessage repository 140, the connection graph repository 142, the streamrepository 144, the account repository 146, and the promotion repository148. A user, utilizing client 105, issues a request to the frontendmodule 110 of the messaging platform 100. The request can be for astream, such as a timeline, of messages. The request can be a searchrequest and include one or more search keywords. The frontend module 110processes the request, which may entail contacting other modules orservices, such as a search module, not depicted in FIG. 1. The frontendmodule 110 also issues a request to the promotion module 120 forpromoted content. Where the initial client request is a search request,the frontend module 120 passes the search keywords to the promotionmodule 120 so that the promotion module 120 can identify and returnpromoted content associated with the search keywords. Where the initialclient request is not a search request, the promotion module 120performs processing that is further described herein to identify andreturn promoted content to the frontend module 120. The frontend module110 incorporates the promoted content in the information provided backto the client 105. For example, where the promoted content is a promotedaccount, the client 105 can receive accounts suggested for the user,including the promoted account. Where the promoted content is a promotedmessage, the client 105 receives a stream of messages which includes thepromoted message inserted in the stream of messages. Where the promotedcontent is a promoted trend, the client 105 receives a promoted trendincluded with the trends presented as part of the service on themessaging platform 100. The promoted content displayed on the client 105can include an identifier and means for reporting the impression and anyengagement with the promoted content back to the messaging platform 100.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of the promotion module120, illustrating an embodiment of an aspect of the invention. Theprocessing performed by the promotion module 120 is preferably dividedinto one or more modules. As depicted in FIG. 2, the processingperformed by the promotion module 120 is divided into multiple promotionshards 220 which are in communication with a promotion mixer 210, whichis responsible for combining the results from the multiple promotionshards 220 into a response provided back to the frontend module 115.

In one embodiment, the promotion module 120 maintains one or more datastructures stored in memory 240 or some other form of repository. In oneembodiment, the promotion module 120 maintains one or more candidatemaps 250 for rapid selection of candidate promotions before applyingmore expensive processing. In another embodiment, the promotion module120 maintains one or more fatigue maps 260 for keeping track of previouspromotions in order to determine whether to present another promotion.The maps can be generated by an offline process 280. The maps can bestored in a high performance memory object caching system, such asmemcache. The processing performed to generate and utilize the candidatemaps 250 and the fatigue maps 260 is further described herein.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of processing performed by the promotion module120 in accordance with an embodiment of an aspect of the invention. Thepromotion module 120 receives a request from the frontend module 110 forone or more promotions. The promotion module 120 performs the processingin FIG. 3 so as to match an active promotion against an account of auser who may be interested in or engage with the promotion. At step 310,the promotion module 120 performs initial candidate selection ortargeting so as to narrow down the set of candidate promotions beforeapplying more expensive processing. The details regarding the differenttypes of candidate selection, in accordance with different embodimentsof different aspects of the invention, are described below. At step 320,the promotion module 120 applies filtering to the candidate promotions.The details regarding different embodiments of filtering are describedbelow. At step 330, the promotion module 120 generates a predictionmodel score, based, for example, on a model of a user's engagement withthe promotion. The details regarding different embodiments of aprediction model score are described below. At step 340, the promotionmodule 120 ranks the promotions, at least in part using the predictionmodel scores. The promotion module 120 preferably uses an auction modelto select the set of promotions to provide back to the frontend module110. The details regarding different embodiments of the ranking/auctionprocessing are described below.

At step 310 in FIG. 3, the promotion module 120 performs initialcandidate selection or targeting. In accordance with differentembodiments of different aspects of the invention, the promotion module120 can utilize any of a number of different targeting techniques.

In one embodiment, where the promotion module 120 receives a requestfrom the frontend module 110 for promoted content associated with asearch request, the promotion module 120 receives and processes the oneor more search keywords associated with the search request. Thepromotion module 120, in one embodiment, maintains a candidate mapbetween keywords and promoted content. The promotion module 120 cangenerate the candidate map by accessing the promotion repository 148 andconstructing the candidate map from promotion campaign entries in therepository. The promotion module 120 can store the candidate map inmemory for rapid lookup. After receiving the search keywords from thefrontend module 110, the promotion module 120 can lookup the searchkeywords in the candidate map and rapidly identify candidate promotionsto associate with the search results.

It can be advantageous to process the keywords, for example, byprocessing keyword criteria into lower-case characters, tokenizing thekeyword criteria, removing stop words, and using stemming. The promotionserver 120 can construct the candidate map so as to facilitate a reverseindex lookup of the longest criteria word. The use of longest criteriaword helps restrict retrievals to small set of candidates, on whichcontainment queries can be performed.

In one embodiment, the promotion module 120 uses a form of implicittargeting to select candidate promotions. The promotion account, inaccordance with the connection graph, will have an existing followerbase, F. Given the set of accounts on the messaging platform 100, it ispossible to cluster the remaining accounts on various notions ofsimilarity to generate a set of lookalikes of F, denoted L(F), which isdistinct from F (that is, accounts in F are not in L(F)). For example,the similarity of accounts can be based on whether the accounts followsimilar accounts, or it can be based on whether the accounts engage withsimilar messages. Given the new set of accounts L(F), it is possible totarget promoted content at F or L(F) or both.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of processing performed by the promotion module120 using implicit targeting, in accordance with an embodiment of anaspect of the invention. The promotion module 120 maintains a candidatemap between a promotion account and other accounts similar to thepromotion account. In FIG. 4, steps 410 through 440 are performed,preferably by an offline process, to generate the candidate map. At step410, the promotion module 120 accesses the connection graph repository142 and retrieves connection graph information on various accounts inthe messaging platform. At step 420, the promotion module 120 iteratesthrough the accounts and generates a similarity score between accounts,e.g., based on a cosine similarity function, where the vectors arevectors of follower connections in the connection graph. The promotionmodule 120 can use any of a number of techniques for determiningsimilarity, such as a random walk technique or a Jaccard similaritycoefficient. The similarity score can be based on other information,such as engagement metrics for each account. At step 430, the promotionmodule 120 can use a score threshold to generate a mapping between thepromotion account and accounts with a similarity score meeting the scorethreshold. At step 440, the promotion module 120 can invert the mappingfor efficient lookup and store the mapping in memory as the candidatemap. The candidate map, accordingly, would contain entries for differentaccounts mapped to promotion accounts. Alternatively, the candidate mapcan associate the different accounts to promotions associated with apromotion account.

In FIG. 4, steps 450-480 are performed by the promotion module 120 aspart of the candidate selection step 310 depicted in FIG. 3. Thepromotion module 120 uses the candidate map constructed in steps 410-440to select the candidate promotions. At step 450, the promotion module450 retrieves connection graph information associated with theparticular user account for which promoted content is to be targeted. Atstep 460, the promotion module 120 takes a list of followees for theuser account from the connection graph information and consults thecandidate map to see if the followees have an entry in the candidatemap. If the followee has an entry in the candidate map, at step 470, thepromotion module at step 480 adds the promotions associated withpromotion accounts identified in the candidate map to the set ofpossible candidate promotions. The promotion module 120 passes thecollection of candidate promotions identified in the targeting steps tothe filtering steps for further processing.

In accordance with another embodiment, the above approach can begeneralized to allow a promoter to specify an account to target. Thetargeted account is utilized instead of the promotion account above togenerate the candidate promotions. The promoter can specify a set S ofaccounts, with the intention of targeting promotions to followers ofaccounts in S or their lookalikes. With reference to FIG. 4, at steps410 to 440, the promotion module would, for each targeted account,generate a list of accounts following the targeted accounts and add inaccounts similar to the accounts following the targeted accounts, inaccordance to the similarity metric. The above embodiment of implicittargeting can be seen as the special case where S is the promotionaccount.

In one embodiment, the promotion module 120 uses a form of explicitkeyword targeting to select candidate promotions. For example, apromoter can specify through the promotion frontend module 115 one ormore keywords. The keywords can be free-form textual keywords or can beselected from a list of possible keywords. The keywords can be selectedfrom a more formal taxonomy of interest categories. The promotion module120 takes the keywords and generates a candidate map that associatesaccounts in the messaging platform with keywords in promotions. Theassociations between accounts and keywords can be generated using any ofa number of signals, including the connection graph, user-specifiedinformation regarding the account, and an analysis of the messagesassociated with the account.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of processing performed by the promotion module120 using this form of explicit keyword targeting, in accordance with anembodiment of an aspect of the invention. The promotion module 120maintains a candidate map between a promotion account and keywordsassociated with the promotion account. In FIG. 5, steps 510 through 540are performed, preferably by an offline process, to generate thecandidate map. At step 510, the promotion module retrieves keywordsassociated with different promotions from the promotion repository 148.At step 520, the promotion module 120 generates associations betweenaccounts in the messaging platform and the keywords. The associationscan represent, for example, how authoritative a person is regarding asubject or topic of interest. The associations can be inferred from theconnection graph information and from user-specified informationregarding the account (such as a bio specified for the account oruser-provided tagging or lists associated with groups of accounts) andfrom an analysis of the messages associated with the account. At step530, the associations between the accounts and the keywords are storedin the candidate map. Alternatively, the candidate map can directlyassociate the accounts with one or more promotions or promotion accountswhich specify the associated keyword.

In FIG. 5, steps 550-580 are performed by the promotion module 120 aspart of the candidate selection step 310 depicted in FIG. 3. Thepromotion module 120 uses the candidate map constructed in steps 510-530to select the candidate promotions. At step 550, the promotion module450 retrieves connection graph information associated with theparticular user account for which promoted content is to be targeted. Atstep 560, the promotion module 120 takes a list of followees for theuser account from the connection graph information and consults thecandidate map to see if the followees have an entry in the candidatemap. If the followee has an entry in the candidate map, at step 570, thepromotion module at step 580 adds the keywords associated with theaccounts to a set of possible candidate keywords. At step 590, thepromotion module 120 retrieves promotions associated with the candidatekeywords and passes the collection of candidate promotions identified inthe targeting steps to the filtering steps for further processing.

In another embodiment, the promotion module can target based on othersignals, including, without limitation, the text in messages, includinglinks and special keywords in messages such as hashtag text. The textcan be in messages composed by a user as well as text consumed by theuser, in a stream associated with the user's account. The promotionmodule can take into account interactions between users in the messagingplatform, such as replies and engagement or interaction with a messageassociated with another account. The promotion module can take intoaccount the time of messages, especially when associated with an event.The promotion module can take into account of other informationassociated with a user, such as user-supplied text, demographicinformation, their geographic location or changes in their geographiclocation.

At step 320 in FIG. 3, the promotion module 120 performs filtering onthe candidate promotions. In accordance with different embodiments ofdifferent aspects of the invention, the promotion module 120 can utilizeany of a number of different filtering techniques. For example, thepromotion module 120 can perform request-level filtering, campaign-levelfiltering, and promotion-level filtering. At request-level filtering,the promotion module 120 decides whether to serve a promotion inresponse to a particular user account request. At campaign-levelfiltering, the promotion module 120 employs one or more filters at thecampaign level, which may or may not include more than one promotions.At promotion-level filtering, the promotion module 120 decides whetheror not to display a promotion at the level of each individual unit ofpromoted content.

In one embodiment, the promotion module 120 applies request-levelfilters such as a stream frequency filter, to ensure that more than acertain number of promotions are not displayed in a user stream for agiven period of time. In another embodiment, the promotion module 120applies an impression limit filter, to ensure that too many promotionsare not displayed in too many requests based on fatigue policies, asfurther discussed below. In one embodiment, the promotion module 120applies filters based on characteristics of a campaign associated withthe promoter. For example, and without limitation, the promotion modulecan apply filters based on keywords, based on limitations on a campaignspend, based on geographic limitations associated with the campaign, andother information associated with the campaign. In one embodiment, thepromotion module 120 applies filters based on characteristics of aspecific promotion, including text associated with the promotion. Thefilter can be based on other information associated with the promotion,such as its score in the prediction model, as further described below.The promotion module 120 can apply filters based on characteristics ofthe user targeted, such as whether the user has blocked other accounts.

In one embodiment, the promotion module 120 filters out candidatepromotions based on user fatigue thresholds. A user, depending on thepromoted content, can respond positively to the content (by engagingwith the content) or negatively to the content, especially if too manypromotions appear or the content itself is not engaging to the user. Inaccordance with one embodiment, the promotion module 120 can filter outcandidate promotions based on thresholds reflected in a fatigue map 260.For example, the promotion module 120 can use the fatigue map 260 tofilter out candidate promotions where the particular user account hasreached a frequency threshold. For example, a cap can be placed on thenumber of times a particular promoter or promotion can appear in aparticular display location during a particular time period. A cap canbe placed on the number of time periods a particular promoter orpromotion can appear in a particular display location. A minimum timeperiod between promotions by the same promoter or all promoters can beset. A maximum number of distinct promoters or promotions can be set fora particular time period. The promotion module 120 can construct thefatigue maps 260 using an offline process 280. The fatigue maps 260 cankeep track of which promotions by which promoters have been presented towhich user accounts, for example, over a particular time period. In oneembodiment, the fatigue map can be implemented as a data structure thatassociates a particular account with a list of promotions presented tothe account, including the number of times the promotion has beenpresented, and the last time the the promotion was presented. Inaccordance with another embodiment, the promotion module 120 can use afatigue model to select whether to filter a promotion, where the modelis based on user behavior. The model can take into account thisparticular user's behavior towards promoted content, e.g., whether theuser avoids and tries to dismiss promoted content, or whether the userengages with promoted content. The fatigue model can also take intoaccount the nature of the particular promotion, and the model can betuned based on user's responses to different promoted content. Forexample, the model can take into account whether a user has dismissedthis type of promotion before or whether the user has engaged with thistype of promotion before.

In FIG. 3, at step 330, the promotion module 120 generates a predictionmodel score for the promotion, based on a model predicting a user'sengagement with or interest in the promotion. The promotion module 120preferably uses a score based on a probability of engagement with thepromotion, such as a predicted click-through rate (pCTR). As an example,and in one embodiment, the promotion module 120 can use a predictionmodel that generates a content resonance score, as disclosed inco-pending commonly-assigned U.S. Utility patent application Ser. No.13/433,217, entitled “Content Resonance,” filed on Mar. 28, 2012, thecontents of which are incorporated by reference herein. The predictionmodel can be based on counting historical features, such as a number oftimes that the promotion was clicked or a number of times that thepromotion has been dismissed. The prediction model can includeadditional features, such as temporal features such as fatigue, andgeographic features, such as where the particular user is located.

In another embodiment, the promotion module 120 can use a moresophisticated model, for example, based on machine learning or otheradvanced classification techniques. For example, the promotion module120 can use a logistic regression model, using an advantageous metricsuch as relative cross-entropy (RCE). In another embodiment, thepromotion module 120 can support multiple models, which areautomatically selected based on some performance metric.

In FIG. 3, at step 340, the promotion module 120 ranks the promotions,at least in part using the above prediction model scores. The promotionmodule 120 preferably uses an auction model to select the set ofpromotions to provide back to the frontend module 110.

In one embodiment, the promotion module 120 ranks the promotions in partbased on the prediction model score and in part based on a bid specifiedby the promoter as part of the auction model. The promoter can specifythe auction bid in a promotion campaign through the promotion client 102interacting with the promotion frontend module 115. In one embodiment,the system provides the promoter with bid guidance for selecting a bidfor a promotion. A minimum and maximum bid can be generated from thespecified budget, the time period of the promotion, as well as take intoaccount factors such as previous bid performance. For each candidatepromotion, the promotion module 120 can generate a rank score, forexample, based on a combination of the bid and a quality score based onthe prediction model score. For illustration purposes, the rank scorecan be generated based a combination of the bid, a quality score basedon the prediction model score, and other historical features, such as apositive metric reflecting a probability of a positive engagement and anegative metric reflecting a probability of a negative engagement. It ispreferable to include tunable parameters with each of the differentfactors combined in the rank score. It would also be advantageous to addother quality signals, such as spam and fraud signals.

The promotion module 120 sorts the candidate promotions by their rankscore, after filtering out any promotions whose rank score falls belowsome threshold. The promotion module 120 can then select the candidatepromotion winning the auction, for example, as the candidate promotionwith the highest rank score. The promotion module 120 can run theauction in a number of ways. For example, and without limitation, thepromotion module 120 can use the bid of the winning candidate promotionas a charge against the budget of the promoter account or,alternatively, the promotion module 120 can use a more sophisticatedauction model, for example, using a second-price auction model, where,for each engagement, the winning promotion is charged the minimum bid itwould have taken to win the auction. In one embodiment, the promotionmodule 120 takes into account the quality score, for example, bycharging a combination of the bid of the runner up in the auction withthe runner up's quality score and the quality score of the promoter. Inone embodiment, the promoter would be charged:

$\frac{\left( {{bid}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{runner}\mspace{14mu}{up}*{qualityScore}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{runner}\mspace{14mu}{up}} \right)}{\left( {{{its}\mspace{14mu}{own}\mspace{14mu}{qualityScotre}} + 0.01} \right)}$In other words, the rationale for the second-price auction model is thatthe winner of the auction is charged just enough to beat the runner upin the auction

In one embodiment, the bid should be higher than a reserve value, or thebid in combination with the quality score should be higher than areserve value in order to participate in the auction. In accordance withanother embodiment, the reserve price can be used as an additionalfilter on the display of the promoted content and can be calibrateddepending on characteristics of the user. For example, a user accountcan be assigned a higher reserve value where the user is particularlyprominent or influential. The accounts in the messaging platform can beassigned a score, for example, depending on their connection graphinformation and other aspects of their usage of the messaging platform.The reserve value, as determined for a particular auction, can then beset in accordance with the score assigned to the account being targetedby the promotion. Where the promotion bid is set to a value that, incombination with the quality score, is lower than the reserve valuedetermined by the score assigned to the user, the promotion will not beconsidered for that user.

In accordance with an embodiment, the promotion module can be configuredto automatically select messages associated with a promotion account forpromotion, rather than being specified by the promoter manually. Thepromotion module 120 can retrieve a set of messages from the promotionaccount, such as the N most recent messages, and then score each messagein accordance with how well the message resonates with users in themessaging platform. For example, and without limitation, a resonancemetric based on a combination of count of clicks and/or other engagementevents (such as replies, favorites, and republication of the message)with the message with a measure of the temporal recency of the messagecan be used to score the message. It can be advantageous to take aninteger log of the score to make the scores of different messages morecomparable. The message or messages with the highest score can then bepromoted, as described above.

In accordance with another embodiment, the promotion module 120 canutilize a more sophisticated mechanism to score and rank messages, suchas a one based on a prediction model that takes into account theparticular promotion account's targeting parameters. The promoter couldbe given choices for constraining the selection of messages, such asmessages which link back to the promoter's site or messages that containcertain text such as a hashtag. The promoter could be provided with amechanism to favor messages that are more recent or that have anothertype of pre-defined characteristic. The promotion frontend module 115can be configured to provide the suggested messages to the promoter formanual selection prior to adding the messages to a promotion.Alternatively, the promotion module 120 can be configured to selectmessages on a periodic basis dynamically for any given promotion.

In accordance with another embodiment, the promotion frontend module 115provides a reach estimation to the promoter as part of the interface onthe client 102. The reach estimation is an estimate of the potentialaudience in the messaging platform seeing promoted content. The reachestimation, in one embodiment, can be generated as follows. For eachtargeting criteria, an estimate is stored of all accounts in themessaging platform that match that criteria, for example, using asampled set of all of the accounts. The intersection and unions betweenthese sets can be used to generate the reach. For a prior time period,the prediction model scores for a promoter can be averaged and used togenerate an approximate set of users that would match a particulartargeting criteria given a particular bid. The system can refine theseestimates as actual performance results on a promotion are returned.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, one or more steps of theflowcharts are repeated concurrently by multiple threads. Thus, one ormore of the steps can be performed serially, in parallel, and/or by adistributed system, in accordance with various embodiments of theinvention.

Content Resonance

System Environment

Referring to FIG. 6, the computing environment for determining thecontent's resonance comprises content servers 604 a-c, resonancedatabase 608, content user clients 606 a-c and network 602. The conceptof a content's “resonance” is a new concept introduced herein whichclassifies content in accordance with a combination of user engagementevents as modified to reflect the temporal structure of the userengagement events, as further described herein. The served content'sresonance can be considered an indicator of how well the content hasresonated with its intended users. As further described herein, theresonance can be based on various factors like how and when the usersinteract with the served content.

The computing environment can include resonance client 610. Theresonance client 610 is a computing device with a processor and a memorycapable of providing a graphical user interface for requesting andviewing the served content's resonance. An example computing device isdescribed with respect to FIG. 6.

Each of the content user clients 606 a-c (collectively referred to as“content user client 606”) is a computing device with a processor and amemory that provides users with an interface to receive and interactwith content. Examples of clients 606 include a desktop, a laptop and ahandheld computing device. An example computing device is described withrespect to FIG. 6.

Each of the content servers 604 a-c (collectively referred to as“content server 604”) is a computing device with a processor and amemory that receives requests for content from various content userclients 606 and transmits the content to the requesting clients 606. Anexample computing device is described with respect to FIG. 11.Additionally, the content server 604 tracks how and when a userinteracts with the received content and determines the content'sresonance based on the tracked information. For example, the contentserver 604 determines when a first user through client 606 a hovers overan embedded link in the received content. Based on the particular timeand the particular action of the first user, the content server 604determines the content's resonance. Next, the content server 604 repeatsthe same process when a second user clicks on the embedded link orperforms another action on the content through client 606 b. The contentserver 604 is described further below.

The resonance database 608 is a computing device with a processor and amemory that stores information shared by content servers 604collectively. The content servers 604 operate collectively to serve alarge number of clients 606. In one embodiment, each content server 604individually determines the content's resonance based on the type andtime of user interaction recorded by the individual content server 604.These individual determinations distribute the load and avoid thelatencies associated with a central entity collecting all the necessarydata and determining the resonance value accessed by all content servers604. However, such individual determinations require a content server604 to also account for type and time of user interactions beingrecorded by other content servers 604. The resonance database 608 storesinformation that assists the content servers 604 to individuallydetermine resonance values and also account for type and time of userinteractions being recorded by other servers.

Examples of such information include an impression total representingthe combined total number of times an impression of a content file isviewed by various users through their clients 606, the impression updatetime when the impression total was last updated by a content server 604,a positive interaction total representing the total number of times theusers have interacted with the content beyond just viewing the content,and the interaction update time when the positive interaction total wasupdated by a content server 604.

In one embodiment, every time a content server 604 reads the impressiontotal and the positive interaction total from the resonance database608, the content server 604 decays the read totals. Such decayed totalsbeneficially give more weight to the current impression and positiveinteraction as compared to the previous impressions and interactions.Accordingly, every time these totals are read, the totals are firstdecayed based on the amount of time passed since the last update. Thedecayed totals are then updated to account for the new impression orpositive interaction. These updated totals and their time of update arethen written by the content server 604 to the resonance database 608.This information is read and updated by various content servers 604 tokeep the content servers 604 synchronized with each other. The use ofthis information in synchronizing the content servers 604 is describedfurther below.

The network 602 represents the communication pathways between theresonance client 610, content servers 604, content user clients (orclient systems) 606 and resonance database 608. In one embodiment, thenetwork 602 is the Internet. The network 602 can also use dedicated orprivate communications links that are not necessarily part of theInternet.

Operational Overview

An originating user uploads content, views content and transmits contentto two other users through a messaging service or another application oncontent user client 606 a. The content server 604 a tracks theoriginating user's interaction with the content and the content server604 b tracks the two recipient's interaction with the received content.When the originating user views and forwards the content through userclient 606 a, the originating client 606 a transmits data to the contentserver 604 a indicating that the originating user has viewed andforwarded the content. The content server 604 a receives the data,determines the time the originating user forwarded the content, anddetermines the content's resonance based on the forwarding action.

To determine resonance, the content server 604 a reads the positiveinteraction total, the interaction update time, the impression total andthe interaction update time from the resonance database 608. Because theoriginating user is the first to view the content and perform a positiveaction, i.e., an action other than viewing the content, all the valuesread from resonance database 608 are zero. The content server 604 a nextdecays the read totals. Because the read totals are at their respectiveminimums, decaying them does not change their value. The content server604 a increments the impression total by one and the positiveinteraction total by the action weight associated with the forwardingaction. Additionally, the content server 604 a updates the impressionupdate time and interaction update time to reflect the time of currentupdate. Next, the content server 604 a writes the updated values to theresonance database 608.

In one embodiment, the content server 604 a maintains a local copy ofthe updated totals. These local copies are used to determine thecontent's resonance. For example, the content server 604 a uses thelocal copies of the totals to determine the content's resonance inresponse to receiving a request for content's resonance from resonanceclient 610. The local copies beneficially enable a content provider todetermine the content's resonance without fetching the values from acentral database and thus avoiding latencies involved with accessing andretrieving data. In another embodiment, the content server 604 a doesnot maintain the local copies and fetches the totals from the resonancedatabase 608 whenever the content server 604 determines the content'sresonance.

Regardless of how the content server 604 a determines the content'sresonance, the content server 604 a forwards the content to its twointended users (or recipients). The first intended recipient views thecontent through client 606 b some time, for e.g. five minutes, after theoriginating user forwards the content. The first intended recipientviews the content and performs no further action on the content. Theclient 606 b transmits data to content server 604 b indicating that thefirst recipient has interacted with, e.g., viewed or selected, thecontent. The content server 606 b receives the data, retrieves thepositive interaction total, the impression total, and their respectiveupdate times from resonance database 608. Next, the content server 606 bdecays the two retrieved totals based on the amount of time, e.g. fiveminutes, elapsed since the last update made to the totals. The decayedimpressions total is then increased by one and the positive interactiontotal is not increased any further because the first intended recipientdid not perform a positive action on the content. The content server 604b then writes the decayed and updated values along with their respectiveupdate times to the resonance database 608.

After another time interval, e.g. two minutes, the second intended userinteracts with, e.g. selects or views, the content sent by theoriginating user and replies to the originating user through client 606c. The client 606 c transmits data to content server 604 b indicatingthe second recipient's action. The content server 604 b then performssimilar steps as described above for the first recipient above. However,unlike the first recipient, the second recipient has performed apositive action of replying based on the received content. Accordingly,the positive interaction total is updated by the weight associated withthe replying action.

In this manner, the content servers 604 beneficially account for varioususers' interaction with the content when determining the content'sresonance. Additionally, the content servers 604 do not account for onlythe total number of user interaction but also weigh different userinteractions differently. Moreover, in one embodiment, the contentservers 604 also beneficially account for the recency of an interaction.The more recent a user's interaction with the content, the more weightit is given in determining the content's resonance.

Upon reading this disclosure, one of ordinary skill in the art willunderstand that the description above includes two content servers 604for the purposes of illustration. In other embodiments, one contentserver 604 can serve content to and track interactions of various users.In such embodiments, the content server 604 does not synchronize withother servers. Accordingly, the content server 604 does not store in orretrieve from the resonance database 608 the above mentioned informationand instead maintains copies of such information in local memory.

Content Server 604

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating the content server 604 accordingto one embodiment of the present disclosure. The content server 604comprises a content module 702, a feedback module 704 and a resonancemodule 706.

The content module 702 receives request for the content from client 606and transmits the requested content to client 606. Additionally, thecontent module 702 also receives from client 606 a a request to forwardthe content to client 606 b. Accordingly, the content module 702determines the content server 604 associated with client 606 b andforwards the request to the determined content server 604. The contentmodule 702 in the determined content server later transmits theforwarded content to client 606 b.

The feedback module 704 communicates with client 606 to determinewhether the content's impression was rendered on client 606, todetermine the action performed by a user on the received content and todetermine the time the action was performed. Examples of user actionsincludes hover view (i.e., moving the cursor over a link or another partof the content), hashtag click (i.e., adding context data or metadatafor the content), URL click (i.e., selecting a link in the content),profile click (i.e., selecting a link to view the content's sender'sprofile), forwarding the content to other users, replying to the contentsender, marking the received content as favorite, and/or subscribing tothe sender's profile to receive additional messages from the sender.

The resonance module 706 determines the content's resonance. Optionally,the resonance module 706 updates the resonance database 608 inembodiments where the content server 604 synchronizes with other contentservers 604. Referring to FIG. 8, the resonance module 706 comprises aninitialization module 802, a decay module 804, a positive interactionmodule 806, a total impressions module 808, a resonance score module 810and an uncertainty module 812.

The initialization module 802 determines whether users have previouslyinteracted with content. If not, the initialization module 802initializes for the content various values like positive interactiontotal, interaction update time, impression total and impression updatetime. The initialization module 802 queries the resonance database 608to determine whether these values exist for the content. If not, theinitialization module 802 initializes these values. In one embodiment,the initialization module 802 initializes all these values to zero.

The decay module 804 retrieves from the resonance database 608 thepositive interaction total, interaction update time, impression totaland impression update time. Next, the decay module 804 adjusts or decays(i.e., dilutes) the positive interaction total based on the current timeand the interaction update time. Similarly, the decay module 804 adjustsor decays the impression total based on the current time and theimpression update time. In one embodiment, the decay module 804 decaysthe impression total according to the following formula:

m_(updated)=m_(prev). e^((−a(t−y))), wherein m_(updated) is the updatedimpression total, a is a constant, t is the current time, and y is theimpression update time.

Similarly, in one embodiment, the decay module 804 decays the positiveinteraction total according to the following formula:

r_(updated)=r_(prev).e^((−a(t−x))), wherein r_(updated) is the updatedpositive interaction total, a is a constant, t is the current time, andx is the interaction update time.

The positive interaction module 806 updates the decayed positiveinteraction total based on the positive interaction tracked by thefeedback module 204. After updating the positive interaction total, thepositive interaction module 806 writes the updated total and the updatetime to the resonance database 608.

To update the decayed positive interaction total, the positiveinteraction module 806 queries the feedback module 204 and determinesthe type of interaction the user has committed with the content. Basedon the determined interaction type, the positive interaction module 806assigns an action weight to the interaction. The positive interactionmodule 806 retrieves the decayed positive interaction total from thedecay module 804 and increments the decayed total by the action weightcorresponding to the interaction.

In one embodiment, the positive interaction module 806 assigns an actionweight to an interaction based on the level of user's interaction withthe content. The more the interaction the greater the weight. Forexample, the positive interaction module 806 may define four types ofweights: curiosity weight, awareness weight, intent weight andengagement weight. Amongst these four types of weight, in oneembodiment, the engagement weight is the greatest, followed by intentweight, awareness weight and then curiosity weight. The interactionmodule 806 may assign hover view action curiosity weight and hashtagclick action awareness weight. The positive interaction module 806 mayalso assign intent weight to URL click, profile click and screen nameclick. Additionally, actions like replying to the content's sender,marking the content as favorite or forwarding the content may beassigned an engagement weight by the positive interaction module 806.Such assignment of different levels of weight to different actions isbeneficial in determining the content's resonance because such weightassignments account for the amount of engagement a particular userdisplays with the content.

After the decayed positive interaction total is incremented withappropriate action weight, the incremented total is used to determinethe content's resonance as described below. Additionally, the positiveinteraction module 806 updates the resonance database 608 with theupdated total. The positive interaction module 806 also updates theinteraction update time as the current time in the resonance database608. The updated positive interaction total and interaction update timebeneficially enable various content servers 604 to synchronize with eachother. The updated total and update time is later read by a positiveinteraction module 806 in another content server 604. The other contentserver 604 updates the read total and time based on the positiveinteraction of another user tracked by that content server 604. In thismanner, each content server 604 reads the value of positive interactiontotal from the resonance database 608 and updates the read value basedon the positive interaction tracked by that particular server.Accordingly, the load of updating the positive interaction total isdistributed amongst various content servers 604. Moreover, because eachcontent server 604 reads and updates the same data variables from theresonance database 608, the positive interaction total and theinteraction update time variables account for positive interactionstracked by all content servers 604 collectively.

Because each individual content server 604 determines the content'sresonance based on these variables, the individually determinedresonance on each server 604 accounts for the feedback from the othercontent servers 604. Accordingly, the determination of resonance made byeach content server 604 is synchronized with the resonance determinationmade by other content servers 604. Although synchronized, the resonancevalues determined by two different content servers 604 need not beidentical because each content server accounts for different positiveinteractions it tracks. Because the positive interactions tracked by twocontent servers 604 need not be identical, the resonance valuesdetermined by the two content servers need not be identical either.

The total impressions module 808 retrieves the decayed impression totalfrom decay module 804 and updates the decayed impression total toaccount for the impression tracked by the feedback module 706. Next, theincremented total is used to determine the content's resonance asdescribed below. Additionally, the total impressions module 808 updatesthe resonance database 608 with the updated impression total. The totalimpressions module 808 also updates the impression update time as thecurrent time in the resonance database 608. Like the updated positiveinteraction total and the interaction update time, the updatedimpression total and impression update time enable content servers tosynchronize with each other.

The resonance score module 810 determines the content's resonance basedon the decayed and updated positive interaction total and impressiontotal. In one embodiment, the resonance is determined based on thefollowing formula:

s=max{((r+1)÷(m+2)),1}, wherein s is resonance, r is the updatedpositive interaction and m is the updated impression total.

The uncertainty module 812 accounts for the uncertainty caused by asmall dataset associated with content. If the content has not beenserved to a predetermined number of users, the impression total andpositive interaction total are not big enough to adequately indicate thecontent's resonance. To counterbalance the adverse effects of smallimpression total and positive interaction total, the uncertainty module810 adjusts the content's resonance based on the total number ofimpressions for all the content that has the same type as the contentwhose resonance is being determined. Content may be classified asbelonging to the same type based on various criteria like keywordsassociated with the content. In one embodiment, the adjusted resonanceis determined based on the following formula:

s=max{((r+1)÷(m+2)), 1}+(ln(M+1)/2(m+2))^(1/2), wherein s is resonance,r is the updated positive interaction, m is the updated impression totaland M is the total number of impressions for all the content that hasthe same type as the content whose resonance is being determined.

Resonance Determination Methodology

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for transmittingresonance for content in response to a request for content's resonanceaccording to one embodiment of the present disclosure. The contentserver 604 transmits 902 content to content user clients 606 andreceives 904 feedback regarding the users' interaction with the content.Based on the received feedback, the content server 604 updates thecontent's positive interaction total and impression total. The contentserver 604 then determines 906 the content's resonance based on theupdated positive interaction total and impression total. The method fordetermining the content's resonance based on positive interaction totaland impression total is further described below with FIG. 11. Next, thecontent server 604 writes 908 the updated total in resonance database608. The content server 604 then receives 910 a request from resonanceclient 610 for content's resonance and the content server 604 transmits912 the determined resonance to the resonance client.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for determiningresonance according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. Thecontent server 604 queries 1102 the resonance database 608 anddetermines 1104 if the content has been previously served and ifimpression total and positive interaction score exist for the content.If not, the content server 604 initializes 1108 the impressions total,the positive interaction score and their respective update times. If thetotals already exist, the content server 604 retrieves 1106 the totalsand their respective update times. Next, the content server 604 decays1110 the impression total and positive interaction score and thenupdates 1112 the impression total and positive interaction score basedon the feedback received in step 404. The content server 604 determines1114 the uncertainty factor and determines 1116 the resonance based onthe updated impressions total, updated positive interaction score, anduncertainty factor. Subsequently, the content server 604 stores 1118 thedetermined resonance.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

Embodiments of the invention, for example as described with referencesto FIGS. 1, 6, any other figure, or any combination thereof, may beimplemented on virtually any type of computer regardless of the platformbeing used. For example, as shown in FIG. 10, a computer system (1000)includes one or more processor(s) (1002) (such as a central processingunit (CPU), integrated circuit, hardware processor, etc.), associatedmemory (1004) (e.g., RAM, cache memory, flash memory, etc.), a storagedevice (1006) (e.g., a hard disk, an optical drive such as a compactdisk drive or digital video disk (DVD) drive, a flash memory stick,etc.), a network adapter (1018), and numerous other elements andfunctionalities typical of today's computers (not shown). One or morecomponents of the computer system (1000) may be communicativelyconnected by a bus (1016). The computer system (1000) may also includeinput means, such as a keyboard (1008), a mouse (1010), or a microphone(not shown). Further, the computer system (1000) may include outputmeans, such as a monitor (1012) (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD), aplasma display, or cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor). The computer system(1000) may be connected to a network (1014) (e.g., a local area network(LAN), a wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet, or any other typeof network) via the network adapter (1118). Those skilled in the artwill appreciate that many different types of computer systems exist, andthe aforementioned input and output means may take other forms.Generally speaking, the computer system (1000) includes at least theminimal processing, input, and/or output means necessary to practiceembodiments of the invention.

Further, in one or more embodiments of the invention, one or moreelements of the aforementioned computer system (1000) may be located ata remote location and connected to the other elements over a network.Further, embodiments of the invention may be implemented on adistributed system having a plurality of nodes, where each portion ofthe invention (e.g., promotion module (120), promotion frontend module(115), promotion repository (148), etc. of FIG. 1, discussed above) maybe located on a different node within the distributed system. In oneembodiment of the invention, the node corresponds to a computer system.Alternatively, the node may correspond to a processor with associatedphysical memory. The node may alternatively correspond to a processor ormicro-core of a processor with shared memory and/or resources.

Further, one or more elements of the above described systems (e.g.,promotion module (120), promotion frontend module (115), promotionrepository (148), etc. of FIG. 1, discussed above) can be implemented assoftware instructions in the form of computer readable program codestored, temporarily or permanently, on one or more non-transitorycomputer readable storage media. The non-transitory computer readablestorage media are executable by one or more computer processors toperform the functionality of one or more components of theabove-described systems and/or flowcharts, in accordance with variousembodiments of the invention. Examples of non-transitorycomputer-readable media can include, but are not limited to, compactdiscs (CDs), flash memory, solid state drives, random access memory(RAM), read only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM(EEPROM), digital versatile disks (DVDs) or other optical storage, andany other computer-readable media excluding transitory, propagatingsignals.

While various embodiments have been described and/or illustrated hereinin the context of fully functional computing systems, one or more ofthese example embodiments may be distributed as a program product in avariety of forms, regardless of the particular type of computer-readablemedia used to actually carry out the distribution. The embodimentsdisclosed herein may also be implemented using software modules thatperform certain tasks. These software modules may include script, batch,or other executable files that may be stored on a computer-readablestorage medium or in a computing system. These software modules mayconfigure a computing system to perform one or more of the exampleembodiments disclosed herein. One or more of the software modulesdisclosed herein may be implemented in a cloud computing environment.Cloud computing environments may provide various services andapplications via the Internet. These cloud-based services (e.g.,software as a service, platform as a service, infrastructure as aservice, etc.) may be accessible through a Web browser or other remoteinterface. Various functions described herein may be provided through aremote desktop environment or any other cloud-based computingenvironment.

While the foregoing disclosure sets forth various embodiments usingspecific block diagrams, flowcharts, and examples, each block diagramcomponent, flowchart step, operation, and/or component described and/orillustrated herein may be implemented, individually and/or collectively,using a wide range of hardware, software, or firmware (or anycombination thereof) configurations. In addition, any disclosure ofcomponents contained within other components should be considered asexamples because many other architectures can be implemented to achievethe same functionality.

The process parameters and sequence of steps described and/orillustrated herein are given by way of example only. For example, whilethe steps illustrated and/or described herein may be shown or discussedin a particular order, these steps do not necessarily need to beperformed in the order illustrated or discussed. The various examplemethods described and/or illustrated herein may also omit one or more ofthe steps described or illustrated herein or include additional steps inaddition to those disclosed.

One or more embodiments of the invention have one or more of thefollowing advantages. By using message data from messages of a messagingplatform as a signal for identifying music-related content, it may bepossible to more accurately determine popularity of an artist and/orsong. Furthermore, by utilizing a messaging data to determine popularityand/or popularity trends, it may be possible to provide more relevantmusic recommendations.

While the invention has been described with respect to a limited numberof embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of thisdisclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised whichdo not depart from the scope of the invention as disclosed herein.Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by theattached claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: one or more computers andone or more storage devices on which are stored instructions that areoperable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the oneor more computers to perform operations comprising: receiving a requestfor a stream of messages to be provided to a requesting user account ofa plurality of user accounts of a real-time messaging platform, whereinthe real-time messaging platform hosts a plurality of accounts thatincludes the plurality of user accounts and a plurality of promotionaccounts, wherein each of the plurality of promotion accounts is arespective account of the real-time messaging platform that has providedone or more items of promoted content and promoted messages for one ormore streams of messages, wherein the real-time messaging platformprovides streams of messages that include the one or more streams ofmessages, wherein messages in the streams of messages include messagesauthored by user accounts of the plurality of user accounts and messagesauthored by promotion accounts of the plurality of promotion accounts,wherein each account is associated with respective connection graph datadefining one or more relationships on a respective connection graphbetween the account and respective other accounts in the plurality ofaccounts, and wherein a relationship on a connection graph between apair of accounts represents that a first, follower account of the pairof accounts is subscribed to receive messages provided to the real-timemessaging platform by a second, followee account of the pair ofaccounts; selecting candidate items of promoted content to be providedto the requesting user account, wherein each item of promoted content isa promoted message authored by a respective promotion account, theselecting comprising: determining that a followee account of therequesting user account is connection graph similar to one or morepromotion accounts, wherein two accounts are connection graph similarwhen a measure of similarity between their respective connection graphssatisfies a similarity threshold, selecting, as candidate items ofpromoted content, one or more items of promoted content provided by theone or more identified promotion accounts that are connection graphsimilar to the followee account of the requesting user account; andproviding, to the requesting user account, in the requested stream ofmessages, one or more of the candidate items of promoted content.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein selecting the one or more items of promotedcontent comprises: excluding from the candidate items of promotedcontent, items of promoted content that have a respective measure offatigue that indicates that the item has been provided to the requestinguser account a number of times meeting a predetermined frequencythreshold within a predetermined period of time.
 3. The system of claim1, wherein at least one item in the candidate items of promoted contentis a recommendation to follow another user account or a trend, whereinthe trend is represented as a list of textual items.
 4. The system ofclaim 1, wherein, for each account, the connection graph data for theaccount further includes engagement metrics that measure engagements bythe account with messages in the streams of messages; and wherein themeasure of similarity between two connection graphs is based on asimilarity between respective engagement metrics included in the graphdata of the respective connection graphs.
 5. The system of claim 1,wherein selecting the candidate items of promoted content furthercomprises: excluding items of promoted content from promotion accountsthat have not designated the requesting user account as a targetedaccount; and selecting candidate items of promoted content from itemsafter the excluding, including selecting items of promoted content fromone or more promotion accounts that have targeted the requesting useraccount.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein the operations furthercomprise: for each targeted user account of the one or more identifiedpromotion accounts, identifying respective related user accounts thatare related to the targeted user account in a respective connectiongraph for the targeted user account and that are each connection graphsimilar to a respective identified promotion account targeting the useraccount; and providing, to the identified related user accounts, the oneor more selected items of promoted content.
 7. The system of claim 6,wherein the operations further comprise maintaining a candidate map thatassociates promotion accounts with sufficiently similar connectiongraphs; and wherein determining that the followee account of therequesting user account is connection graph similar to the one or morepromotion accounts comprises determining that the followee account ismapped to the one or more promotion accounts in the candidate map. 8.The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more items of promoted contentprovided by the one or more promotion accounts include items receivedfrom a particular promotion account, and wherein selecting candidateitems of promoted content further comprises: receiving, from theparticular promotion account, one or more keywords; generating a keywordmap that maps user accounts of the platform one or more respectivekeywords that describe the user account, wherein generating the keywordmap comprises generating mappings from each of the mapped user accountsto the one or more keywords, using: (i) connection graph data associatedwith the user account, (ii) user-specified information provided by theuser account, or (iii) messages authored by the user account; andwherein selecting the candidate items of promoted content furthercomprises: determining that the followee account is mapped to one ormore keywords, and in response, selecting as candidate items of promotedcontent, one or more items of promoted content comprising the one ormore keywords mapped to the followee account.
 9. The system of claim 1,wherein the operations further comprise maintaining a candidate map thatassociates promotion accounts with sufficiently similar connectiongraphs; and wherein determining that the followee account of therequesting user account is connection graph similar to the one or morepromotion accounts comprises determining that the followee account ismapped to the one or more promotion accounts in the candidate map.
 10. Amethod, comprising: receiving a request for a stream of messages to beprovided to a requesting user account of a plurality of user accounts ofa real-time messaging platform, wherein the real-time messaging platformhosts a plurality of accounts that includes the plurality of useraccounts and a plurality of promotion accounts, wherein each of theplurality of promotion accounts is a respective account of the real-timemessaging platform that has provided one or more items of promotedcontent and promoted messages for one or more streams of messages,wherein the real-time messaging platform provides streams of messagesthat include the one or more streams of messages, wherein messages inthe streams of messages include messages authored by user accounts ofthe plurality of user accounts and messages authored by promotionaccounts of the plurality of promotion accounts, wherein each account isassociated with respective connection graph data defining one or morerelationships on a respective connection graph between the account andrespective other accounts in the plurality of accounts, and wherein arelationship on a connection graph between a pair of accounts representsthat a first, follower account of the pair of accounts is subscribed toreceive messages provided to the real-time messaging platform by asecond, followee account of the pair of accounts; selecting candidateitems of promoted content to be provided to the requesting user account,wherein each item of promoted content is a promoted message authored bya respective promotion account, the selecting comprising: determiningthat a followee account of the requesting user account is connectiongraph similar to one or more promotion accounts, wherein two accountsare connection graph similar when a measure of similarity between theirrespective connection graphs satisfies a similarity threshold,selecting, as candidate items of promoted content, one or more items ofpromoted content provided by the one or more identified promotionaccounts that are connection graph similar to the followee account ofthe requesting user account; and providing, to the requesting useraccount, in the requested stream of messages, one or more of thecandidate items of promoted content.
 11. The method of claim 10, whereinselecting the one or more items of promoted content comprises: excludingfrom the candidate items of promoted content, items of promoted contentthat have a respective measure of fatigue that indicates that the itemhas been provided to the requesting user account a number of timesmeeting a predetermined frequency threshold within a predeterminedperiod of time.
 12. The method of claim 10, wherein at least one item inthe candidate items of promoted content is a recommendation to followanother user account or a trend, wherein the trend is represented as alist of textual items.
 13. The method of claim 10, wherein, for eachaccount, the connection graph data for the account further includesengagement metrics that measure engagements by the account with messagesin the streams of messages; and wherein the measure of similaritybetween two connection graphs is based on a similarity betweenrespective engagement metrics included in the graph data of therespective connection graphs.
 14. The method of claim 10, whereinselecting the candidate items of promoted content further comprises:excluding items of promoted content from promotion accounts that havenot designated the requesting user account as a targeted account; andselecting candidate items of promoted content from items after theexcluding, including selecting items of promoted content from one ormore promotion accounts that have targeted the requesting user account.15. The method of claim 14, further comprising: for each targeted useraccount of the one or more identified promotion accounts, identifyingrespective related user accounts that are related to the targeted useraccount in a respective connection graph for the targeted user accountand that are each connection graph similar to a respective identifiedpromotion account targeting the user account; and providing, to theidentified related user accounts, the one or more selected items ofpromoted content.
 16. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or moreitems of promoted content provided by the one or more promotion accountsinclude items received from a particular promotion account, and whereinselecting candidate items of promoted content further comprises:receiving, from the particular promotion account, one or more keywords,wherein each keyword describes the particular promotion account or itemsof promoted content received from the particular promotion account;generating a keyword map that maps user accounts of the platform to oneor more respective keywords that describe the user account, whereingenerating the keyword map comprises generating mappings from each ofthe mapped user accounts to the one or more keywords, using: (i)connection graph data associated with the user account, (ii)user-specified information provided by the user account, or (iii)messages authored by the user account; and wherein selecting thecandidate items of promoted content further comprises: determining thatthe followee account is mapped to one or more keyword, and in response,selecting as candidate items of promoted content, one or more items ofpromoted content comprising the one or more keywords mapped to thefollowee account.
 17. The method of claim 10, wherein the measure ofsimilarity between two connection graphs is a measure of (i) a number ofaccounts represented in the two connection graphs following samerespective accounts, (ii) a number of accounts represented in the twoconnection graphs engaging with same respective messages posted to theplatform, or both.
 18. One or more non-transitory computer-readablestorage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by one ormore computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operationscomprising: receiving a request for a stream of messages to be providedto a requesting user account of a plurality of user accounts of areal-time messaging platform, wherein the real-time messaging platformhosts a plurality of accounts that includes the plurality of useraccounts and a plurality of promotion accounts, wherein each of theplurality of promotion accounts is a respective account of the real-timemessaging platform that has provided one or more items of promotedcontent and promoted messages for one or more streams of messages,wherein the real-time messaging platform provides streams of messagesthat include the one or more streams of messages, wherein messages inthe streams of messages include messages authored by user accounts ofthe plurality of user accounts and messages authored by promotionaccounts of the plurality of promotion accounts, wherein each account isassociated with respective connection graph data defining one or morerelationships on a respective connection graph between the account andrespective other accounts in the plurality of accounts, and wherein arelationship on a connection graph between a pair of accounts representsthat a first, follower account of the pair of accounts is subscribed toreceive messages provided to the real-time messaging platform by asecond, followee account of the pair of accounts; selecting candidateitems of promoted content, including to be provided to the requestinguser account, wherein each item of promoted content is a promotedmessage authored by a respective promotion account, the selectingcomprising: determining that a followee account of the requesting useraccount is connection graph similar to one or more promotion accounts,wherein two accounts are connection graph similar when a measure ofsimilarity between their respective connection graphs satisfies asimilarity threshold, selecting, as candidate items of promoted content,one or more items of promoted content provided by the one or moreidentified promotion accounts that are connection graph similar to thefollowee account of the requesting user account; and providing, to therequesting user account, in the requested stream of messages, one ormore of the candidate items of promoted content.
 19. Thecomputer-readable media of claim 18, wherein selecting candidate itemsof promoted content further comprises: wherein selecting the candidateitems of promoted content further comprises: excluding items of promotedcontent from promotion accounts that have not designated the requestinguser account as a targeted account; and selecting candidate items ofpromoted content from items after the excluding, including selectingitems of promoted content from one or more promotion accounts that havetargeted the requesting user account.
 20. The computer-readable media ofclaim 19, wherein the operations further comprise: for each targeteduser account of the one or more identified promotion accounts,identifying respective related user accounts that are related to thetargeted user account in a respective connection graph for the targeteduser account and that are each connection graph similar to a respectiveidentified promotion account targeting the user account; and providing,to the identified related user accounts, the one or more selected itemsof promoted content.
 21. The computer-readable media of claim 18,wherein the one or more items of promoted content provided by the one ormore promotion accounts include items received from a particularpromotion account, and wherein selecting candidate items of promotedcontent further comprises: receiving, from the particular promotionaccount, one or more keywords, wherein each keyword describes theparticular promotion account or items of promoted content received fromthe particular promotion account; generating a keyword map that mapsuser accounts of the platform to one or more respective keywords thatdescribe the user account, wherein generating the keyword map comprisesgenerating mappings from each of the mapped user accounts to the one ormore keywords, using: (i) connection graph data associated with the useraccount, (ii) user-specified information provided by the user account,or (iii) messages authored by the user account; and wherein selectingthe candidate items of promoted content further comprises: determiningthat the followee account is mapped to one or more keyword, and inresponse, selecting as candidate items of promoted content, one or moreitems of promoted content comprising the one or more keywords mapped tothe followee account.
 22. The computer-readable media of claim 18,wherein selecting the one or more items of promoted content comprises:excluding from the candidate items of promoted content, items ofpromoted content that have a respective measure of fatigue thatindicates that the item has been provided to the requesting user accounta number of times meeting a predetermined frequency threshold within apredetermined period of time.
 23. The computer-readable media of claim18, wherein at least one item in the candidate items of promoted contentis a recommendation to follow another user account or a trend, whereinthe trend is represented as a list of textual items.
 24. Thecomputer-readable media of claim 18, wherein, for each account, theconnection graph data for the account further includes engagementmetrics that measure engagements by the account with messages in thestreams of messages; and wherein the measure of similarity between twoconnection graphs is based on a similarity between respective engagementmetrics included in the graph data of the respective connection graphs.25. The system of claim 1, wherein the measure of similarity between twoconnection graphs is a measure of (i) a number of accounts representedin the two connection graphs following same respective accounts, (ii) anumber of accounts represented in the two connection graphs engagingwith same respective messages posted to the platform, or both.
 26. Thecomputer-readable media of claim 18, wherein the measure of similaritybetween two connection graphs is a measure of (i) a number of accountsrepresented in the two connection graphs following same respectiveaccounts, (ii) a number of accounts represented in the two connectiongraphs engaging with same respective messages posted to the platform, orboth.
 27. The computer-readable media of claim 18, wherein theoperations further comprise maintaining a candidate map that associatespromotion accounts with sufficiently similar connection graphs; andwherein determining that the followee account of the requesting useraccount is connection graph similar to the one or more promotionaccounts comprises determining that the followee account is mapped tothe one or more promotion accounts in the candidate map.